This was later in the day.  Just now, Mavis was about to be taken down to luncheon by Montague Devitt; she wondered if her defence of dear Jill had prejudiced her chance of an engagement.

“What’s that picture covered with a shutter for?” asked Mavis, as her eye fell on the padlocked “Etty.”

“Oh, well-it’s an ‘Etty’:  some people might think it’s scarcely the thing for some young people, you know,” replied Devitt, as they descended the stairs.

“Really!  Is that why it’s kept like that?” asked Mavis, who could scarcely conceal her amusement.

Mrs Devitt, who was immediately behind, had detected the note of merriment in Mavis’s voice.  “Scarcely a pure-minded girl,” she said to herself, unconscious of the fact that there is nothing so improper as the thoughts implied by propriety.

It was not a very pleasant time for Mavis.  Although the luncheon was a good meal, and served in a manner to which she had been unaccustomed for many years, she did not feel at home with the Devitts.  Montague, the head of the house, she disliked least; no one could be long insensible to his goodness of heart.  Already, she could not “stand” Lowther, for the reason that he hardly took his eyes from her face.  As for the women, she was soon conscious of the social gulf that, in reality, lay between her and them; she was, also, aware that they were inclined to patronise her, particularly Mrs Devitt and Miss Spraggs:  the high hopes with which she had commenced the day had already suffered diminution.

“And what are your aims in life?” Miss Spraggs asked presently; she had found the peas to be as succulent as she had wished.

“To earn my own living,” replied Mavis, who had seen that it was she to whom the agreeable rattle had spoken.

“But, surely, that doesn’t satisfy the young women of today!” continued Miss Spraggs.

“I fear it does me; but then I don’t know any young women to be influenced by,” answered Mavis.

“I thought every young woman, nowadays, was thirsting with ambition,” said Miss Spraggs.

“I suppose everyone, who isn’t an idiot, has her preferences,” remarked Mavis.

“I don’t mean that.  I thought every girl was determined on living her own life to the exclusion of everything else,” continued Miss Spraggs.

“Really!” asked Mavis in some surprise, as she believed that it was only the plain and unattractive women who were of that complexion of thought.

“Despise marriage and all that,” put in Lowther, his eyes on Mavis as he tossed off a glass of wine.

“But I don’t despise marriage,” protested Mavis.

“Really!” said Mrs Devitt, whose sensibilities were a trifle shocked by this remark.

“If two people are in love with each other, and can afford to marry, it seems a particularly natural proceeding,” said Mavis simply.

“One that you would welcome?” asked Miss Spraggs, as she raised her thin eyebrows.